How is IDEO’s Human-Centered Design used for Social Good Projects?
Human-centered design is a creative problem-solving technique, whose two crucial elements are the people being designed for and the new custom-built solutions. The design process is made up of three phases: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. In the inspiration phase, the problem-solver learns from his clients by immersing himself in their way of life to better understand their needs. Thereafter, he will determine and analyze the opportunities and prototype their suitable solutions in the ideation phase. Eventually, the idea is actualized in the implementation phase. The human-centered design focuses on the interests of the people that it is serving. For example, when working with Syrian refugees, Jocelyn’s team realized that puberty girls did not comprehend their body changes and how to deal with them. They applied the human-centered design approach to achieve improved reproductive health for girls and women. Another example is how Proximity designs create products like foot pumps to assist people living in poverty-stricken regions.
Design for delight and theory of change was the new concepts that I found. The latter is a vital tool in human-centered design used to describe and illustrate the expected changes. Design for delight aims at exceeding customer expectations, triggering positive feelings, and improving lives. It involves establishing a deep empathy with the individuals you are modeling for, developing lots of concepts, setting up some prototypes, sharing the final product with the individuals you are designing for, and finally implementing it. Empathy gives the designer a better understanding, thus inspiring innovations and solutions. It is advisable to begin with, lots of ideas, then narrow down to the most favorable one. For example, Proximity products are designed for delight as they improve users’ lives, making them more productive and increasing their incomes.